Trunked communication systems are known to comprise a plurality of communication units, a limited number of communication resources that are transceived via a predetermined number of repeaters, or base stations, and a communication resource allocator that allocates the limited number of communication resources among the plurality of communication units. The communication units may be portable radios and/or mobile radios. The communication resources may comprise a TDM (time-division multiplexed) bus, telephone lines, a carrier frequency, a pair of carrier frequencies, or any RF (radio frequency) transmission means.
Generally, trunked two-way communication systems provide mobile and portable communication units with wireless services similar to many wired communication networks. Such examples include full-duplex telephone voice communication, two-way mobile-to-mobile group dispatch communication, and two-way mobile-to-dispatcher group dispatch communication. A typical trunked communication system site, where each different site has a different physical location, is composed of a number of full-duplex repeaters, each coupled to a variety of devices to support interconnection to the public telephone network, mobile-to-mobile calling, and to one or more dispatcher console positions. These devices typically provide a centralized control for the repeaters. For example, a single central controller provides radio channel signaling encode and decode functions, authorization functions, resource determination functions, and communication activity logging for multiple repeater resources. A single telephone interconnect switch typically provides the repeaters with an interface to one or more telephone lines to support telephone interconnect communication. In systems employing a single device that is shared among the repeaters, a failure of the single device may render one or more of the desired services or functions inoperable, thus impairing communications in the system.
One method of overcoming a single central controller problem is to eliminate the use of a single central controller and use intelligent repeaters that process and store control information, interface directly to external communication networks, and distribute the needed system functions throughout the intelligent repeaters. Although such a system has many advantages over a system utilizing a single central controller, it would be expensive to replace all of the current non-intelligent repeaters with intelligent repeaters, particularly if the non-intelligent repeaters are relatively new or have many useful years remaining.
Therefore, a method of providing centralized control of non-intelligent repeaters without a central controller is desired.